Can’t lift Musharraf travel ban, says Pakistan court

Islamabad- A court in Pakistan Monday said it cannot remove the name of Pervez Musharraf from a list of people barred from leaving the country and asked the former president to approach the government, a media report said.

Disposing of an application seeking removal of Musharraf’s name from the exit control list, a two-member bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto, said the matter did not fall under its legal jurisdiction, Dawn News reported.

The court advised Musharraf’s counsel A.Q. Halepota to approach the government if he desired permission to meet his 95-year-old ailing mother in Dubai.

Musharraf’s advocate last month had sought a review of the court’s earlier order restraining the former president from leaving the country without permission of the trial courts.

A former army chief, Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup when he dismissed the government of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999. He was president from 2001 to 2008, when he stepped down and went on to live in London in self-exile.

He returned to Islamabad in March this year to take part in parliamentary elections. However, a court disqualified him from contesting the polls.

Musharraf has been granted bail in four major cases, including one related to the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

He is now facing trial for high treason — for imposing emergency rule in 2007.